About us

The New Schools Network was set up in 2009. We are a small charity that works to transform the standard of education in England by delivering more high-quality free schools and campaigning to win public and political support for free schools.

We believe that too many children attend schools that are failing. We have some brilliant schools in our country, but there aren’t enough good places to go round. One in ten children go to failing primary schools and one in five children go to failing secondary schools. In many parts of the country, parents have no option other than to send their children to schools that are not good enough. In total, across England, 1.4 million children do so, and one in four parents say that given the option, they would have picked another school for their child.

To address this challenge we:

Campaign to increase the number of good new free school applicants.

Provide hands-on support to applicants through our Development Programme to make sure the quality of applicants is as strong as possible.

Support successful applicants through our Delivery Programme as they prepare to open their schools.

Provide opportunities for open free schools to exchange ideas, information and experiences about what works well and what does not, and to improve the capacity of school trusts as they grow

NSN is a registered charity, and we are committed to being an effective and transparent organisation that achieves excellent value for those who fund and support us.

NSN funding is drawn from a variety of sources including individual donors, charitable trusts and public grants. Further details and our full annual report can be downloaded from the Charity Commission.